From: mecewd@jetson.uh.edu
Subject: Re: The Military and Video Game Development
Date: 12 May 91 01:22:09 CDT
Message-ID: <9355.282c98c1@jetson.uh.edu>
Organization: University of Houston



In article <1991May2.041739.16073@milton.u.washington.edu>, eno@leland.
stanford.edu (Benedict Dugan) writes:

> Does anyone out there know anything about military research/interest/usage
> of early video games?  ie. --> Is/Was there a connection between the 
> development of video games and military simulators?  I would appreciate any
> leads.  ie. -->  Who (if anyone) would have been involved?  What groups, 
> corporations, labs, insitutes etc. should I get in touch with.  We need to 
> know for a research proj. in history and philosophy of science.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Johanna and Ben
> ph. 415-497-6314 (day) 415-854-7633
>  
 After jogging my memory, I think I have a partial answer to your query. The
first video games I recall were the Oddysey "pong" games that appeared for home
TVs in the late 70s(?). These had basic B/W bitmap graphics (the "tennis balls"
were square blips!) and made no pretense to simulating reality (except for 2-D
beings!). These were followed somewhat later by Space Invaders, and other
arcade games.

    Military simulators appear to have evolved out of airliner cockpit flight
simulators, with "wireframe" graphics like those in 3-D solids modeling. A few
of the earlier arcade games used this approach. Names that come to mind include
Space Wars, Tail Gunner, Tempest, and Battle Zone (tank warfare, only you can't
turn the turrets!). This has been largely bypassed in favor of the color bitmap
approach (i.e., having 100 different images of Mario depending on how far away
he is, whether he is running or jumping, etc.) as less computer intensive.  

    The short answer is that unrecently, these technologies seem to have
evolved more or less independently. But that's just my general perception.

    One possible source of info. would be Link Flight Simulation here in 
Houston - they've been doing NASA and DOD stuff for some years, I believe. 
Another would be E-Systems in Dallas.